Conwy, Wales

We felt like a less vigorous day today and so headed out to the coastal town of Conwy. The central part of the town is built within the walls of an impressive castle. We were searching for more natural surroundings though and so headed out to the RSPB Wetlands Centre just out of town. We spent some time relaxing there, walking the 2 mile path around the lakes, and spying on the birds from the hides as an opportunity for me to try out the ultrazoom (380mm equivalent) lens on my digital camera. I've learned I need a better mini-tripod than the one I've got here, and I'm wishing my Manfrotto wasn't in storage in New Zealand. Anyway, we saw a number of new birds we'd never seen before at this wetlands centre. As a result, I've finally gotten around to updating our birds page with these new entries. There is still a recent two-month gap is still to be filled in the list, when I find the scraps of paper with any notes on...

From the wetlands centre we went back into the town to have a look at the castle. Unfortunately, with the walls circling the town we never quite figured out how to get up onto them or into the keep, and the light was fading. Still, we had a look around before heading back to the wetlands centre again at twilight. That's because the staff there had told us, just as we were leaving, that half a million Starlings had started roosting there each evening, since the previous week. They had done the same thing the previous year in October, though no one knew why... While Starlings are considered a pest in New Zealand, the Wetlands Centre was pleased to have so many guests drop in. We joined a bevy of others who turned up to watch them swoop by in their amazingly coordinated flocks. This evening we didn't see the entire half million flocking together, which apparently they had done the previous night. It was still an impressive sight to see them arriving by the hundred.

From there we decided to catch a movie, so after a quick pizza we continued the nature-focussed day by going to see Finding Nemo. We liked it. A good movie about overcoming anxiety, incidentally, not that I see psychological issues in everything. But it's also about parental bonding and responsibility and letting your children grow up, and...   : ) Back to Llanberis to sleep, with sore legs beginning to show from yesterday's efforts.

Llanberis, Snowdonia

Today we climbed Mt Snowdon, which the Welsh are keen to point out is the highest peak in Wales and England. Forecasts for the region over the last week had not been particularly encouraging, with reports ranging from clouds and rain to lightning bolts. However, weather for our drive to Wales yesterday was pleasant, and the trip was mostly smooth despite an apparently predictable traffic jam on the motorway past Birmingham. We arrived at our Bed and Breakfast to a cool but dry afternoon in Llanberis on the foothills of the mountain. We were glad to have pre-booked as we discovered that the annual marathon that starts and finishes at Llanberis was being held today. The town was booked solid.

The day dawned relatively clear, and our hiking-savvy hosts at the B&B recommended we should climb the mountain today. As we set off up the road to the trail carpark, the peak of the mountain was veiled in a thin layer of cloud but there was no threat of rain. Unfortunately, as the marathon ran right past the mountain carpark, the park was full and we had to drive down the mountain some distance to find a place to park. We thus had already hiked for 20 minutes by the time we got back to the carpark. It may have been this which led to me confidently leading us down an alternate path from the carpark, despite Bronwyn's protestations and desire to check the map. I still maintain the map was somewhat misleading. In any case, as a result we ended up walking the first half hour or so on the trail we planned to follow on the return journey. The two trails almost overlap at one point however, divided primarily by altitude. A moderate hike up a fairly steep section thus put us back on the high road even if I had to give up the moral high ground and admit I was in fact wrong about the tracks!

Overall, the climb was excellent, with the cloud layer burning off so the summit was clear. A couple of hours later we thus found ourselves, with a hundred or so other people at the time, at the top of the mountain. The views were excellent, and we could see water in three directions around the Peninsulas. People at the summit claimed to be able to see Ireland, which is apparently possible on a good day. Neither of us could really claim to have seen it. In any case, our new digital camera was put to good use on the climb and at the summit, and photos of our trip will be uploaded in the Travel section eventually. We climbed back down the mountain, taking our intended route along the entire journey, and drove back to Llanberis seeking more than anything sleep, glorious sleep.

Save the Wales

I hadn't driven a car for six months, but tomorrow I'm driving to another country. We plan to leave about 6.30am because it's always nice to be “overseas” by lunchtime... We've borrowed a car from friends Pip and Alex at Church, the selfsame pair who drove us to Leeds back at Easter. When they generously offered us one of their cars to use I tried to cancel the booking with the rental car company, only to discover they said they'd never received our booking. Might have been complicated had we only discovered it tonight! Anyway, we're going to Snowdonia as planned, staying in Llanberis for anyone who's interested. We'll be home on Tuesday night. Not expecting internet access there so will update probably on Wednesday. Have just realised that in contrast to Italy and Paris, we didn't think to pick up a Welsh phrasebook prior to our trip. Might rectify that one the way... suspect any attempt would be met with a good response there. The host of our B&B is a rugby fan who enthused that he'll have all the games on if we're interested. I can't think of a better time to visit Wales than during a World Cup.

Finally a note of congratulations to our housemate Nick for his new job, being one of the few, a Mac tech guy in an organisation surrounded mostly by PC weenies. Keep up the fight Nick!

Sleep well, my love...

Each night, just before we go to sleep, Bronwyn and I read together from the bible. We use published notes, which pick a particular series of verses to read each day, and then give a comment on them. Last night we got into bed, and got out the bible to read the night's verses. Just as I found the passage, Bronwyn looked at her bedside clock and realised the time – 11:30pm. She was upset... “I didn't realise it was that late. How can it be 11:30?” We've quite often had late nights, Bronwyn needing to work long evenings to prepare for each following school day, and this week has been particularly bad. As her alarm sounds at 5:55am, the nights become short and she's been exhausted. As Bronwyn sat in bed, on the verge of tears, I turned to the bible passage and read it out. It was a Psalm, the entire Psalm only five verses long, yet the notes indicated to read just the first two verses. They were:

You can speak of coincidence. I will speak of a timely word that demonstrated God cares about Bronwyn's circumstances. “What does it mean?” asked Bronwyn. “It means God had a word for you today."

We're going to bed earlier tonight.

Gone to the birds

For a long time we'd talked about a visit to the London Wetlands Centre, a plan delayed primarily by the knowledge I'd be wanting to photograph the birds there. Having finally received my new camera last week, we ended up heading out there last Saturday. It was quite different to what I expected in some ways. There were the expected large wetlands areas, with a wide range of birdlife present. The hides were large and enabled a fairly good view of the birds, though I was somewhat surprised at how far away the birds were. The 380mm-equivalent zoom on the camera still didn't do justice to many of the birds, and a pair of binoculars or better still a birding scope would have been excellent. We later found two of these free for visitor use in the main observatory and I spent quite some time using the larger one...

The thing that surprised us most though was that they have captive birds at the Wetlands Centre too. Like the Australian Magpie Goose above, these birds have one wing pinioned to permanently prevent them from flying. All of these birds are endangered species, drawn from locations right around the world. The birds are inside a wide area with an electrified mesh perimeter fence that goes both up and under the ground, to protect them from cats and foxes. Inside however is wide open spaces, and you can get amazingly close to these fearless birds. Some of these (endangered, you'll recall) birds walk right up to you on the paths, like ducks at the local pond. Others are in enclosures behind two foot high fences, without any cages or mesh. The Centre is engaged in an active and successful breeding programme, so while it was a surprise see captive birds I'm not criticising them... Anyway, the winter migration hasn't really started yet, so in a month or so there will be a whole range of other wild species to be seen at the Wetlands. We hope to go again before the end of the year.

Bronwyn has been incredibly busy since the start of term. She needs to do school work every weeknight and spend a significant proportion of the weekend working too. It was a genuine sacrifice for her to go out for the day to the Wetlands Centre, and I appreciated it. It is the last week of the half-term now, and we're looking forward to our four-day weekend away, from Saturday to Tuesday. She'll then be spending the rest of her week “off” preparing for the next half-term. This includes preparations at the moment for both a prizegiving for the students who left at the end of the last academic year, and a Christmas concert, as well as all her usual work. It's a busy time for her. It's probably a good thing therefore that my work situation has settled somewhat, and I'm feeling much happier in my role. This is giving me the capacity to be more supportive of her heavy load. I hope she could confirm that I am putting the capacity into practical use...

A season for everything

All things eventually come to pass... I made the decision last December to purchase a digital camera when I arrived here in the UK. A new model, due to be released in April caused me to delay my plans. Delay followed frustrating delay, until the first cameras finally shipped here in late July-early August. Having actually seen on in the flesh (well, metal) on 12 August I went ahead placed an order with Amazon. “Usually ships in 1-2 weeks” was their advice to potential purchasers of this camera, throughout the further two months I waited! Well, as I reported last Thursday I gave up waiting when I found a company that now matched Amazon's (previously unbeatable) price, and who claimed to have the camera in stock. Amazon had meanwhile updated their dispatch estimate for my order to 14-21 November. I ordered the camera from the new store, and was able to track the camera's progress via the courier's web site... The tracking information shows a hiccup caused by the shop not putting my full work address on the label, which resulting in a one-day delay. I was unhappy. However, yesterday the camera finally arrived, safe and sound, all forgiven! The camera is excellent, and at last my waiting is over. It is over 10 years since I last bought a camera, though I inherited one during that time. I hope this one will serve me so well.

The seasons are turning here. Other antipodeans have said to us they love how distinct the four seasons are here, and we're beginning to see the change. The temperatures are dropping, it is getting dark as we get home from work now, and Bronwyn already leaves for work in the dark. The trees are on fire with colour. I took my camera to work today, thinking to photograph for the first time the buildings I work in. Instead, I saw this ivy-covered wall on a building along the way. It is not hard to love this time of year.

London is a much more beautiful place than I expected. The areas we tend to frequent are much cleaner than other major cities we've visited in a number of countries now, but it's more than that. I am amazed at the variety of wildlife we see in our garden; far more than we saw in Palmerston North. London has a surprising array of birdlife in particular, which is itself seasonal. Some birds here in the summer understandably decide Africa is a better place to spend the winter, while others defy the odds and come to Britain from the south, just for the winter. Even the animal life is cosmopolitan here. Watching the sunset dwarfing the city tonight I realise I've started to see how people could make their home here.

The Kingdom of Summer

This is no fiction; this is no dream. One day this will be. God grant that my life may contribute to his realisation...

Congratulations Sonya & Dave

Sonya and Dave were married today. Sonya is Bronwyn's cousin and she lives in New Zealand. This is the second family wedding we've missed in two weeks, with belated Congratulations! also due to another of her cousins Nathanael and his new bride Jo for their wedding last weekend. We would have loved to have been with each of them.

We knew about both of these weddings before we left New Zealand, and had thus counted the cost already I guess. From here there will probably be an increasing number of events we don't expect, each emphasising for us the distance from home. We felt uncomfortably far during the recent hospitalisation of the younger son Jacob of close friends Geoff & Adrienne. Our foundations remain firmly in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Today is also the birthday of my good friend Andrew. I was his best man; he was mine. Outside of family, I've known Andrew longer than anyone else. Our friendship seems to be one of those that doesn't change over time. While I'd never deliberately neglect him, we also seem to be able to pick things up where we've left off, even after some time has passed. I telephoned Andrew in New Zealand today to wish him a happy birthday. There is nothing like old friends who know you well. Happy Birthday old man.

Happy Birthday Claire!

Tonight* we celebrated Claire's birthday at Plan B, a club in the (notorious) London suburb of Brixton. (Adding the words “the” and "riots" to “Brixton” may jog your memory.) Claire is a colleague of mine, a speech therapist, who until last week was working at the site I'm based at... She's just been seconded to our main campus for the next twelve weeks, and is the person mentioned in passing in last Saturday's episode. Well, we had an exellent time tonight... I'm enjoying getting to know some of my workmates better. It's cool to be working in a place where there are people of a similar age and stage to me; quite different from my previous jobs. Tonight we must have been the first to leave, catching the last tube home around midnight. It was a balance of me feeling like we were leaving too soon, and Bronwyn feeling that our eventual crash into bed at 1:40am was too late for her... Our different sleep/wake cycles sometimes present a challenge. It's true that Bronwyn's never been good with late or short nights, but I should confess my unfair advantage that I can get up over an hour later than her every day if I choose. It may be time to re-jig our evening timetable so she gets more sleep in the week. If it means I consistently start waking at 6am, I guess I'll just be able to send a few emails before going to work...

A conversation I had with birthday-girl Claire last night got me thinking. I was asking how she'd decided to become a Speech Therapist; she asked me why I hadn't. I'd never really even heard of Speech Therapy when I was making formative decisions. I wonder now how people become lots of those unusual professions. Everyone knows “butcher, baker, candlestick maker", but “apiarist, arborist, phlebotomy technician” just doesn't roll off the mind so easily. I seem to actively make so few significant decisions in my life, and so wonder, how do people drift into these jobs?

Action!

Action seems to be the order of the day, in the week in which the Action Hero™ becomes the Governator... It has been nigh on two months since I ordered a new camera from Amazon. That I've been waiting to get this camera longer is illustrated by the fact that Bronwyn gave me a set of (expensive) rechargeable batteries for it, for Christmas last year! As we plan a possible trip to Snowdonia in a couple of weeks time, the prospect of another trip without the camera became intolerable. Updating my order on the Amazon site revealed they were now predicting it would ship in mid-November. A quick internet search also revealed that while Amazon's price was unbeatable when I placed the order, it isn't unique any more. I clicked through to an equivalent price on an apparently reliable store (not one I've used before). They claimed to have the camera in stock. Despite my scepticism about this claim I concede it is possible they do have it in stock; I have seen this camera in one store. Anyway, I'll be finding out because I've gone ahead and placed an order with them. Whichever reseller ships first, I'll cancel the other order. Should they both ship at once, each has a no-questions full-refund return policy. I can't see Amazon shipping anytime soon though.

In another sphere I've made a fairly significant decision not to take action. Following a fairly direct discussion with my boss, we've made some moves to address some of the concerns I had about my work situation. As a result I have decided to remain at my current workplace at this time, rather than pursuing other possibilities that were on the local horizon. We shall see how all this pans out. For the meantime the resolution of this in my thinking enables me to get on with some things I was perhaps delaying until I saw how the cards fell. It's good to have clearer focus again, for a time.

National toy accumulation week

Continuing the we-got-new-stuff trend of the last few days, I've inherited a Nokia 8210. When we'd first come to London we'd been told by quite a few people that we wouldn't be able to cope without two cellphones. We certainly needed one mobile, for Bronwyn to negotiate her day supply work with teaching agencies when already down at the railway station in the mornings. We picked that up in the week after we arrived here, a Nokia 3410. Anyway, over recent times there have been an increasing number of occasions where I realised that my life would be simpler if I was sometimes able to get hold of Bronwyn and other people while on the move... But I still didn't really want to shell out up to £100 for a phone. Well, I happened to mention this to Sonja, and in a strange set of circumstances involving a drunk in Eastern Europe, two cellphone companies, and a New Zealander living in Scotland, she was able to assist me to become the proud owner of this little baby. The slightly dizzying pace of accumulation lately may appear in contrast to our desire to live a simple lifestyle. I think it is just a timing issue with recent acquisitions. As I write this I realise I've a digital camera on back order. Perhaps it is more that all my Christmases have just come at once. In any case, this tiny little cellphone will be very useful. It's even red. What more could I ask for?

The weather is definitely cooling off here now, with predicted temperatures over the next week in the 14-15 range, where even last week we were still getting 20s. The slide into winter is starting, and on one recent evening we needed to turn on the central heating in our flat. It's been incredibly cool inside the flat in summer, which we've figured could mean one of two things. Either the flat is extremely well insulated, in which case it will be nice and warm in winter, or the flat is an icebox and we're going to freeze! We've been encouraged to find that when the rest of the house has become cold overnight our bedrooms have remained warm, suggesting to us the house may be well insulated. If so we should be in for a cozy few months. London's museums and galleries are all free, and I foresee a fair few excursions on cold and wet days to take in this side of London life.

Last night I was out at work drinks for a colleague who is leaving our team for a few months having been seconded to our Trust's main campus in another suburb. From there we headed out to dinner at Phil and Marguerite's, a couple we met through Worple Road Evangelical Church. They'd organised a Greek dinner following a trip they'd made there a while ago, inviting us and four others. They wouldn't let us smash the Wedgewood even when we were playing the Greek “instrumental” music (complete with vocals), but we had a great time anyway. Thanks Phil and Marguerite!

Postal fever

It's been quite the week for getting parcels in the post. Some were expected, but one arrived today completely out of the blue. When Bronwyn came home we unwrapped it to discover this beautiful framed panoramic photo of Titahi Bay beach... just down the road from where Bronwyn grew up. The picture was sent by my brother Tim and his wife Megan, who wrote in the card, “Think of this as a no reason gift to remind you of home.” I could not be more warmed by such a wonderful and generous gift. This gift will be a treasured reminder for me also of the remarkable change in my relationship with Tim over recent years. We both agree we got off to a fairly rocky start in our first, oh, 15 to 20 years or so. We owe our parents an enormous debt of thanks as we realise how difficult we truly were as a combo in childhood. Fortunately things have changed. This picture is already assisting in much-needed decoration of our quite empty flat, and will have prominent place in every home we live in. Thank you Tim and Megan!

Other parcels received this week pale in meaningfulness compared to the Titahi Bay photo. They do warrant a mention however. Tuesday was a bumper day for me. At work during the day I received a parcel from Amazon. It contained the Wacom tablet and software previously mentioned, along with a German phrasebook and Lonely Planet Germany guide that I'd ordered at the same time. I arrived home to also find that a second-hand book I'd ordered via Amazon's marketplace system had also arrived... Stephen Lawhead's third book in the Pendragon Cycle, Arthur. As if this wasn't enough, there was one further delivery that had arrived. Some months ago I entered a competition on a web site of a local Wimbledon firm of Structural Engineers. They had a promotion advertised in the Wimbledon Fair booklet. Well, a couple of weeks ago they emailed me, many months later, to say I was one of their three winners! To be honest, I couldn't recall what the prize had been in the first place, but just arranged for them to deliver it. When it arrived on Tuesday it turned out to be a boxed bottle of Moët & Chandon, a rather pricey bottle of bubbles. We'll be saving that for a special occasion...

Predictions are fickle

I find myself the pleased if somewhat bemused owner of a Wacom Graphire2 graphics tablet. We saw the Wacom booth at Apple Expo Paris two weeks ago. If you'd asked me then whether I thought I'd ever own a graphics tablet in my entire life I'd have said I thought the chances were basically zero. So it was with some surprise that I found myself ordering one from Amazon a little over a week later.

I've recently been concerned to experience symptoms that I presume are the earliest signs of what could develop into an RSI/Carpal Tunnel Syndrome-type problem. There is no question what the cause will be: regular and extended use of our laptop at home, plus keyboard use at work. Without a decent desk at home I frequently use our laptop sprawled on a couch or sitting up on our bed. Wrist positioning on laptops is fairly un-ergonomic at the best of times; I think it has extended to anti-ergonomic on occasions here. I decided therefore that action had to be taken, as I see a lot of keyboarding in my future. I decided to look at buying an external keyboard and mouse for our computer to enable a wrist-friendly setup. I'd had this in the past with our older laptop to good effect. I was surfing various sites looking at options when Nick suggested the possibility of a graphics tablet. The Wacom ones come with a mouse as well and on impulse I checked them out. Well, they're not cheap. However, I discovered two things. We'd seen the new Graphire3 launched at the Apple Expo, and as a result Amazon had the older model on sale to clear inventory. Additionally, the graphics tablet came bundled with three pieces of software, one of which was Photoshop Elements 2.0. I'd already decided previously that I was going to buy this software, and fortunately hadn't ordered it a couple of weeks ago. It turned out that the bundle (graphics tablet with mouse, plus Photoshop Elements and other software) cost only £8 more than the software by itself! So, I find myself with a cool piece of hardware unexpectedly, along with part of the solution to my wrist problems hopefully. A keyboard will probably be added to the setup at some point. I'll keep you posted...

Finally, today marks a change in the way I'm producing this weblog. (There are some details of a technical nature in the Geeklog below.) The changes will mean opportunities to make babbage.tv a more interactive broadcast for viewers. You can start right now by having your say in the new comments feature: what revolutionary new technology would you like to see in babbage.tv next?